3.8. THE LEAN ENTERPRISE

It's difficult to overstate the opportunities represented by the slow processes found in nearly every organization. The problem that most firms have is in implementation. They perform training and conduct some isolated improvement efforts, but in the end make little measurable impact on overall lead time or cost (as we saw in the Preface).

Lean Six Sigma provides an unambiguous roadmap to implementation by prioritizing time traps and applying improvement methods, in that order. Eliminating the causes of wasted time allows a process to improve cost, quality, and responsiveness—characteristics that are critical to customers and shareholders. In most organizations, this can contribute 5% of revenue to operating margins. The speed and responsiveness of Lean can allow a company to increase revenue growth beyond its slower competitors. Finally, Lean methods apply to virtually all processes, from product development to order fulfillment. The increasing process speeds of Lean also enhance the power of Six Sigma tools such as Design of Experiments. But Lean alone, just like Six Sigma alone, isn't the complete answer. The next chapter will show how to bring Lean and Six Sigma together to create a powerful engine for value creation.